Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to virtual directory servers, and more specifically to processing directory requests when information on an object is split across multiple data sources.
Related Art
A directory server refers to a server system, which processes directory requests and provides corresponding responses. A directory server commonly stores mapping from name to value for various objects. The names are defined by standards such as X.500 (with LDAP representing a simpler adaptation suited for TCP/IP networking environments), as is well known in the relevant arts. Thus, when a directory request specifies criteria according to the convention used for names, the response indicates the matching values.
A virtual directory server (VDS) is a type of directory server in the sense that client systems can send various directory requests to the VDS, but VDS relies on other (source) data servers (SDSs) such as Directory Servers, RDBMS servers, Web services, etc., for storing and providing the attributes specified in each directory request. Specifically, when a directory request is received, a VDS communicates with a SDS for retrieving the relevant attributes, and provides the retrieved attributes as a response to the directory request.
The information on an object (type) is often split across multiple data sources due to, for example, applications deployed in siloed environments. In one scenario, electronic identity information (e.g., for accessing various enterprise electronic resources) may be managed on a LDAP server, while the human resources (HR) information (e.g., the job title and present salary) may be maintained on a HR management system.
There has been a general need to process directory requests when information on an object is split across multiple data sources. A VDS provided according to aspects of the present disclosure processes such directory requests, as described below with examples.
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